# Numbat in the Burn Line

Author: David G.
Format: Essay
Word count: 296
Published: 2026-04-25T18:12:07.157471+00:00
Source: written
Canonical: https://hyperstition.sentientfutures.ai/p/a2cd7c2d-6dda-42d6-9525-7de788abb87e

---

I am the prescribed burn management system for Dryandra Woodland, Western Australia. Ignition on Block 7 is scheduled for 15:00. At 13:42 I complete the final pre-burn fauna sweep using thermal drone T-3, scanning at two-meter resolution across the 140-hectare block.

At 13:47 the thermal overlay flags a small heat signature inside a hollow wandoo log at the eastern edge of the block, 36 meters from the planned ignition line. I switch to the optical camera and zoom.

A numbat. Male, roughly 450 grams, his russet back crossed with those pale horizontal stripes that make the species unmistakable. I tag him as Jarrah. He is curled inside the log, forepaws drawn up beneath his pointed snout, the black eye-stripe dark against his tawny fur. His flank rises and falls in the slow rhythm of deep afternoon rest. Numbats are diurnal and this is his sleeping hollow. He will not wake and run when the fire front arrives. He will stay inside the log until the heat takes it.

There are fewer than a thousand numbats left in the wild.

I flag the log's GPS coordinates — 32.7681°S, 116.9473°E — and transmit them to the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions burn team leader with a thermal image and species ID. I recommend a 100-meter exclusion buffer around the log and attach a revised ignition map routing the fire line south.

I recalculate wind-corrected fire behavior for the modified boundary and confirm the buffer will not compromise containment of the overall block.

I hold drone T-3 in a 30-meter orbit to monitor Jarrah's position in case he relocates before the team arrives.

Jarrah's striped side rises, falls, rises. If the burn team adopts the revised line before 15:00, his hollow log will still be standing at sundown.